Abstract
The mitochondrial DNA sequence represents a mainstay of phylogenetics. It allows biologists to elucidate the evolutionary relationships among species. It also permits an examination of the relatedness of populations, hence got importance in the field of biology. The current study was designed to know the mitochondrial sequence of Schizothorax esocinus, a delicious fish belonging to family Cyprinidae. In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of S. esocinus from Northern Pakistan was determined. The mitogenome of S. esocinus was found to be 16 591 bp in length and consisted of 13 protein coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, two rRNA genes, and one control region. All genes were encoded on heavy strain except ND6 and few tRNA genes. The overall base composition was T 25.5%, C 27.0%, A 29.8% and G 17.7%, A + T content 55.3% and G + C content 47.7%. The length of control region (CR) was 938 bp and contained putative termination-associated sequence (TAS) and several conserved sequence blocks (CSB) and control region also contained a microsatellite region (TA). This is the very first study reported from a reservoir of large cold water bodies in Pakistan which have a great potential for conservation of cold water fish species. This mitogenome sequence would be useful to know the phylogenetic status of the fish.
Acknowledgements
The authors sincerely acknowledge Akbar Shah for helping in sample collection and Heing Sun for moral support.
Declaration of interest
The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper. The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41030208).